The purpose of this work is to offer a study of the novels of Jewish-American author Henry Roth, situating those novels within several contexts, namely: early twentieth century life and ethnography in New York City, immigrant-specifically Jewish-experience, Judaism, with special reference to Eastern European orthodoxy, Roth's autobiographical style, and Hebrew literature. Of particular note is the issue of continuity that Roth himself incessantly sought.The first chapter provides a biographical sketch of Henry Roth, weaving together a brief story of his life that includes commentary upon his boyhood years, his family and relationships, his novels, and the sixty-year-long writer's block that intervened between publication of his first novel, Call It Sleep, and the 1990s volumes of the Mercy of a Rude Stream series; four novels of that series are currently in print. Chapter Two offers a brief outline of Jewish history that not only helps place Roth among the Eastern European Diaspora Jews of early twentieth century New York City but that also introduces the concepts of sin, atonement, and covenant that pervade Roth's writings.Chapter Three is devoted to an examination of Call It Sleep. This third chapter introduces and credits previous Roth scholarship while discussing the novel as an immigrant story, as Hebraic literature in its use of Midrashic elements and themes, and as ethnography. Additionally, this section suggests that Call It Sleep is somewhat polemic in its emphasis upon the Judaic convenant, despite Roth's assimilationist.stance during the years in which he composed the novel.Sequent to a fourth chapter describing the years between 1934 and the 1990s, years in which Roth found himself unable to write another novel and published but sporadically in periodicals, a fifth chapter discusses Roth's Mercy of a Rude Stream series. Those novels, again valuable documents that accurately depict turn-of-thecentury New York as well as the tale of the immigrant, exhibit continuity both among themselves and with Roth's first novel in their covenant thematic and Midrashic structure. Concepts discussed include intertextuality, teshuvah, and kedushah. The conclusion provides summary and is followed by a brief glossary. / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown State College. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2830. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [138]-142).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

La présente étude traite d'À la merci d'un courant violent de Henry Roth. Cette tétralogie de près de 2000 pages, publiée entre 1994 et 1998, venait rompre le silence de plus d'un demi-siècle qui avait suivi la publication du seul roman de Roth, Call it Sleep (L'or de la terre promise). Elle s'inscrit de manière originale dans le sillon d'œuvres au statut générique indécidable, sinon problématique. Discours référentiel et fictionnel y cohabitent, s'y intriquent et s'y contredisent. Si la matière est en grande partie autobiographique, les procédés formels sont issus sans conteste de la tradition des romans réalistes, modernes et contemporains (de Dickens à la métafiction de Gass en passant par Joyce, Proust et Dos Passos). Devant beaucoup à la théorie des genres littéraires de Jean-Marie Schaeffer et plus particulièrement à la définition théorique et historique du roman autobiographique comme genre littéraire de Philippe Gasparini, cette étude cherche à approfondir le problème du genre contradictoire et hétérodoxe de l'œuvre tardive de Roth, le roman autobiographique. Le mémoire, en trois chapitres, traite du pacte de lecture contradictoire, scellé par le double affichage générique délibérément orchestré par l'auteur et par l'éditeur, et de ce que Vincent Colonna a appelé la lecture duelle, à la fois référentielle-autobiographique et fictionnelle. Par là, il touche au problème de la vérité dans sa relation à la fiction et tente, finalement, de proposer des pistes d'analyse inusitées sur la question épineuse de l'auteur (comme notion, comme figure et comme personne) en études littéraires. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Henry Roth, À la merci d'un courant violent, roman autobiographique, roman juif américain, auteur.